I never got my nap. My thoughts kept chasing themselves around my head. Was biting Thunderlane overkill? My first thought is a resounding no, but I know that is wrong. But I don't think I was in the wrong. But, as a rational being, I know that there were other options. So why did I default to violence? But I didn't, I gave him fair warning. Didn't I?
All too soon, Rainbow had finished her nap. She didn't say anything, but I could still feel her disappointment. I hung my head the whole ride home. Rainbow made good on her fishcake promise. It wasn't until we were getting ready for bed that she finally said something.
"You know what you did wrong. Be glad that Thunderlane was as understanding as he was."
I did, and I was. So why don't I feel bad about it? The thought swam through my head as I fell asleep.
I walked through some bushes lining a wide trail of hardened dirt, relishing in the breeze as it blew through my fur. I went on my merry way, the red and yellow fish I ate prior settling nicely in my stomach. My ears twitched as I heard a noise coming from ahead of me. Curiosity peaked, I ran forward, listening as the sounds grew closer.
"We(ə)r is hē?" The sound was coming from the trail. I nudged a branch out of way to see a large two legged, mostly furless monkey with pale skin pacing back and forth. What little fur it had looked shorn short with dedicated care. It never left the confines of the trail. I shrunk back in fear, as it seemed to have bloodlessly torn the top of a long-eared, tan dog's head off and placed it on its own. "(H)wät ko͝od bē ˈtākiNG him sō läNG?"
The monkey used its elongated, brown, odd looking hoof to kick a loose rock into the far bushes. "Itz bad iˈnəf T͟Hat ˈlēō'z ˈēgō hazˌdisəˈpi(ə)red ī dōnt nō (h)wī ī po͝ot əp wiTH T͟Hat imˈpəlsiv fo͞ol." It seemed to sigh. "Hēz ˈōnlē gotten wərs sins T͟Hat dam ˈmiSHˌmaSH ˈdevəl moved in." It saw another rock, teasing it from the dirt. "T͟Hat THiNG haz taken kənˈtrōl, and T͟Hē ˈəT͟Hərz e(ə)r lāt fər T͟Hē riˈzistəns ˈmētiNG!"
It kicked the rock at the bush I was hiding in. I yipped as the rock flew past my head. I bolted in a panic. I only stopped when I tumbled from the bushes. I lay on a patch of short grass trying to catch my breath.
A black paw stepped into my field of vision. I looked up to see a black and light grey dog. His red eye's glared down at me. I quickly got up, ready to fight or run. That's when I saw the smaller light grey dog hiding behind his leg.
"Umm, hi?"
The elder canine smiled, giving off a feeling of welcoming. I relaxed as he tilted his head to his pup. Both the pup and I leaned forward to get the other's scent. It wasn't long before the pup was bounding around me with excitement.
With a smile, I turned back to the elder. "Thank you for letting me stay on your range."
Yellow light glared over the shortened grass. The three of us bolted to the bushes lining the grassy area. We each ran to different sides. I looked to the light source to see a family group of those odd monkeys. The larger male (I think) was pointing at me, directing his young's attention to me. The two pups were staring at me in awe. I glanced at the bushes the other canines ran to, but they had left completely.
I decided to follow their example and turned and left. I made my way through the woods, looking for a place to sleep. I soon spotted a cave. That'll do. I thought as I trotted inside. I made my way to the back, knowing that I would be safest there. I would also find any other occupants there if this cave was already owned. I turned the last corner and stopped, zipping back around the corner. I looked cautiously around the corner to confirm my fears.
The monkey from the trail was there.
It wasn't until I got a third look that I saw the differences. This one's fur was longer and more scraggly. It's coverings were torn and had holes in them. And it was chained to the back wall. It's eyes glared at the corner I was hiding behind. "Yə kəm bak tä glōt, yə ˈbastərd?" It struggled against the chains. "Kəm out and dō it tä mī fās, yə ˈfəkiNG
ˈkou-ərd!"
I waited until it had calmed down. Once it did, I tentatively stepped out to get a closer look. It was chained to the point of immobility, so I felt safe.
Its eyes softened. "ō, ˈēgō. (H)wət did T͟Hət ˈfəkər dō tä yə..." It's eyes snapped up to glare at something behind me. "Stā əˈwā frəm him!!"
I heard laughter come from behind me, before I felt a sharp pain burst from my chest through my back. I looked down at the claws jutting from my chest in shock. I coughed some blood out onto them.
I jerked awake from my dream. I lay in my bed, panting heavily. I got up once my heart had calmed down. I needed to find Yomega. I crept my way out of the house. Once paws touched dirt, I ran to the library. I squirmed my way through the nearest tunnel, then quietly walked up the basement stairs.
I paused as I passed one of the side rooms. I could hear muffled voices from within. I decided to ignore them and made my way up to Twilight's room as quietly as I could so I didn't wake up the sleeping mare. I poked my head in to see if I could spot Yomega as well as anything I might trip over. It took me a moment to realize that no one was there.
I made my way back to the room I heard people talking in. For all I knew, Twilight could be late going to bed again.
I tilted an ear towards the cracked open door as I approached.
"Ugh, no, that still doesn't taste right."
"Still too bland?"
"Yeah." I gave the door a quick scratch. "... I'll get it?"
I saw Abes' paw hook the door's edge before he swung it open. Behind him sat Lulu and Villhiem with three cups between them. "Oh hey, Leo. What are you doing up?"
"Lookin' fer Yomega." I mumbled.
"I'm sorry," Abes placed a paw on my shoulder, "he's over at Applejack's. Twilight, Moon Dancer, and Rarity are having a sleep over. I think they have one every couple moon's or so."
" Oh..." My ears and tail dropped. I turned to go. "I'll see him tomorrow, then." I murmured.
Abes' paw tightened its grip. "Hey, we might not be him, but you can still talk to us."
I heard a snort from Villhiem. "Especially if it's just a bad dream."
I let myself be led into the room. They sat me down between them. I curled my tail around me as I shrunk in on myself. I watched as Villhiem tore a small chunk of tail-leaf off and dropped it into one of the cups. Lulu held a paw up, staring at it in concentration. I watched as the paw seemed to bubble and warp as steam began to rise from it. Once it was bubbling at a frantic rate, she dipped it into the cup. Pulling her paw back, I could see she had left a cupful of hot water that began to become discolored.
Pushing the cup to me, Abes spoke. "So, what has got you so down?"
I looked to each of them, before focusing on the cup. "I... I think I may have a problem." I mumbled to the liquid. I missed the shared look the evolved forms had. "Have ya been told about Thunderlane from earlier?"
"Yeah." Villhiem nodded. "He got bitten earlier and spent most of the day talking to Moon Dancer about...." He trailed off as a look of horror spread across his muzzle. "That was you!" I nodded dejectedly. "Why?!"
"I was bored, an' frustrated at being bored, an' thinking about winter, an' wanted to be left alone!" I wailed. "And Thunderlane wouldn't stop poking me, an' I tried to give him hints to fuck off, an' he wasn't listening! I didn't even notice that I used my move until I tasted blood!"
Abes gave my cup a nudge. Taking the hint, I took a small sip. I could feel the spores taking affect, relaxing me. "... This is very bitter." I mumbled before taking another sip.
"We know, darling." Lulu assured. "But, to bring the topic back to the matter at paw, you obviously feel bad about biting him, so-"
"But I don't!" I stressed. "I feel bad about not feeling bad, but I couldn't care less about the bite itself. I feel completely justified about it. Which leads to my problem..."
"You don't want it to happen again?" Villhiem guessed.
"No!" I shook my head. "It's more... complicated than that..." I trailed off.
"Don't leave us in suspense." Abes pressed.
I glared at him. "I'm tryin' ta form the words!" I took an angry slurp of tea. "This is very effective tea." I said as I relaxed again. I took my time to put my thought's in order. "I feel like I'm losing myself. Like I'm not being 'Leo' and becoming the 'Eevee'. Like... " I paused. "Like my actions are not 'mine'. Like I'm running off of instinct. Just by the fact we were brought here, I've lost the most." I gestured to my groin. "I feel like I'm losing more of who and what I am to the form I've been forced into...."
The evolved forms shared another look. I missed the subtext to the look, and I figured that I wouldn't for a long while yet. Abes placed a paw on my shoulder again. "I feel that this is an outside context problem for us. But, tell you what." He pulled me into a hug. "We'll keep an eye on you, and try to stop you if it look like you're going too far. And if you need to talk, we will listen. Okay?"
I nodded, taking another sip of the tea. "Okay..."
I guess that's the best I can hope for....
... this really is good tea...
8809816
I like your thinking, I shall do it.
A) "It was very obvious from the first sentence."
B
A) I always can tell the difference.
Between A and B, noticed when the fish were mentioned.
A)
A. Little too obvious since there was no scene transition and up untill now youve been really good about that.
C.
8809818
Noibat/Noivern is probably the first I would have named outside of Gen 1's Zubat/Golbat (and Crobat, which was added in Gen 2) too, but there's also Woobat/Swoobat.
So Leo goes to sleep and than the story goes straight to the next scene with him/her walking with the mention a eating a fish and humans with no set up or reason behind it, gee wiz I wonder what is going on?
A.
(A)
To be fair, though, a lot of dream sequences that start mid-chapter tend to start the same way, and you weren't exactly subtle about it, as well as the dialogue from "Human" Leo being in a more than difficult to parse format...
A. I'm good at spotting the little details and rationalizing(?) things like that, so most of the time a dream sequence won't fool me.
To answer your note at the end, it was almost an A because I got it way too close to the start but B
8809901
I think Noibat will be perfect for a vampony discover and figure out what it is. plus it is a cute little bat as a bonus.
E. From before you started the first sentence. You literally prefaced the entire sequence with "...I fell asleep."
i had no idea what was going on during the dream. in all honesty I'm having trouble keeping up with just their names and who's evolved let alone whats going on in the story.... I'm trying to keep up! but I'm still a tad confused.
that being said I do still love each and every chapter but don't really have the time to go back and re-read some of the chapters.
REGARDLESS, i still love this fic!
A/E the disconnect from the scene, was notable in the first dream paragraph. Also ther e was the whole 'i fell asleep' line before the break.
B) with his human self
A
Finally, I got caught up to the end. I love this story, and can’t wait for more! :)
Secret answer V) When my eyes where instantly drawn to the readable gobbledygook and jumped past the first paragraph.
so when will leo evolve into a jolteon
8810434
Well, there are currently 6/8 unique evolutions left. The Dou will likely get the same evolution, which means the rest will have unique evolutions. My money is on Glaceon, mostly so that they can make ice queen jokes.
A/B, when fish were mentioned.
8810141
Near as I can figure about the dream, Leo is dreaming about his Id, Ego and Superego, from the perspective of Eevee/Ego. Superego is worried that Id (the impulsive fool) is late to a “resistance meeting” against the “mish-mash devil” that has moved into his mind, and the Ego is missing. Ego, not recognizing Superego, leaves, eventually finding a cave where Id is trapped under the “devil’s” control. Id recognizes Ego, but not the other way around. The “devil” then kicks Ego out of the dream.
I’ll leave you to guess who the devil is that is being referred to.
However, my best guess at what this dream means is that Leo’s mind is not itself. His impulsive, instinctive side (Id) is not in his control anymore, as seen by the fact that he bites Thunderlane instead of doing something else. His more conscious, thinking side (Ego) can tell that something is wrong but is unable to reason what because it no longer recognizes the higher-thinking morality side (Superego) as being a part of itself, since he knows he should feel bad, but does not.
There is a google doc with info on all the characters linked in the story description. It’s a few chapters out of date, but mostly relevant. However, for simplicity’s sake: Leo is the dreamer. Abes is an Umbreon, Lulu is a Vaporeon, Villheim is a Leafeon, and Yomega is a shiny Eevee who is away in this chapter. From the looks of teatime, Lulu is taking the other -eon’s advice by talking to them and is still coming to terms with herself and her connection to water.
I lied about updating it. Moving has changed to unpacking and I don’t have a computer or internet until things get more settled. It WILL be updated at some point but I’m not sure when that will be at this time. I can post comments on mobile, but the formatting on the doc looks weird on my phone, and I don’t want to mess with it unless I can see it clearly.
The fact that I started to skip the monkey's dialogue after the first one because they were too annoying to try and decipher set me back on the realization a little.
a) altho it was technically the second sentence
A, you did end the previous scene with Leo falling asleep.
A, but a few sentences in.
8810521
WOW ok that has cleared up almost ALL of my questions. thanks! its been a while since i've looked at the id, ego, and superego so i think ill go and brush up on that but just the concept itself is real interesting!
A
B. But not too far in.
8825936
Terrible artist though
8829872
Every artist says that. Besides, the best way to get better is to do.
I'm really enjoying this reed.
I vote for Kenn -> Flareon and
Leo -> Jolteon.
A and B. I suspected it was a Dream as he went right to sleep and suddenly was somewhere else. But it could have also been a transition into the next day. It was confirmed a dream when the 'Monkeys' started talking, aka the humans.
definitely the first sentence for me. course, my hyper brain processes process things alot faster than most.
First sentence.
Paragraph Directly before the dream is what gave it away
A.) :P
When it said monkey, i was sure. But it went into the dream like a notmal story would go into a dream sequence, and Leo thought about the fish she had just eaten, so I suspected. Fairly obvious, so I’d say A.
Given that the previous sentence tells us Leo is falling asleep, A
Formatting Error: missing space
Typo: scent
Typo: cautiously
Grammar Error: remove
here we go again
Grammar Error: this needs to be capitalized, both because it's the start of a sentence and because the word 'I' always is.
B) When it started describing the humans and he was still an eevee.
8938790
Next time don’t call people stupid Mmk? Yea, the subtle hinting in your statement gave it away, “Hyper Brain.”
A and a half) Second paragraph, with the humans. I don't feel justified in calling that B).
I'm going to go with option C+ where the claw was shoved through Leo's chest
Leo seem to lose it hard... After all it happen later than i expected Leo needs some relaxing time to balance all the stress
I'm gonna go with option E, as in, I couldn't even follow what was going on because there's so little detail and so many sentences starting with the oh-so repetitive "I". Sorry if that comes off rude, not my intent.
It's always interesting to reread stories I like and then find errors I missed my first time reading through. :P
This was heart pumpingly terracing dream.
And so it begins with those. (Dreams)
The [horizontal rule] with no real transition made it obvious.
That's a good thing, though. It makes it easier to follow, and unless you really, really know how to subtly show the dreamer learning that it is a dream at the same pace as the reader, it's good to know from the beginning. (Otherwise it just causes needless frustration and makes many people start over from the dream start anyway.)